New Plan
by eswigag
Summary: "Alex struggled for words. Claire wasn't going to help her with this one." Alex/Claire femslash, mentioned past Alex/Vamp!Henry. Set S11, after "Don't You Forget About Me".


Claire bumped her knuckles against Alex's open door, leaning in. "Knock knock."

"Who's - " The other girl was lying on her bed, hugging a pillow to her chin as she stared down at the homework spread in front of her. Alex glanced up and there was a flash of surprise across her face as she recognized her visitor.

Claire squinted at the papers. "You need any help with that? I'm not, like, super smart or anything so I probably can't help you, but if you're stuck on anything, I might be able to get someone from one of my classes to do it for you."

Alex frowned. Not in a scandalized "I can't _believe_ you'd suggest I cheat" way, more like she was surprised she was even getting the offer. "I - Uhhh. I don't know. I want to try to do it myself, but maybe. If I can't figure it out." Her eyes dropped and she tapped her pencil. "Thanks."

"Can I come in?" Claire asked.

Alex shrugged. "I guess. You live here too."

Despite asking to come in, Claire didn't move from the doorframe. "Yeah, but it's _your_ room."

Now Alex was staring at her. "Okay," she said slowly. "So did you come here for a reason, or?"

How was she supposed to start? Might as well cut to the chase, right? "So, I know you and that creepy vamp were going to go to prom," Claire started. Suddenly Alex found something new in her homework and bent closer to study it, hiding behind sheets of dark hair. Claire pressed on. "And that plan's kind of shot now."

"Looks like it," Alex muttered.

"Well, are you going anyway?"

Silence. Alex held pencil to paper like she was actually going to use it, without actually using it.

Claire flushed. "Are you?"

"Doubt it," Alex's voice came subdued through her dark hair.

Feeling like an intruder despite being _technically_ invited, Claire cautiously crossed into the room. She hesitated again before sitting down on Alex's bed at a safe distance from her – what were they? roommates? Sitting next to Alex herself would be too awkward.

Claire rolled her eyes. Yeah. Because it wasn't like it was awkward at all yet. Might as well go all the way and make it completely fucking awkward. "Well. Do you still _want_ to go?" she asked, almost wincing as she did.

Alex twisted around to look at Claire with big blue eyes. "Wait."

"Yeah?"

"Are you - " Alex struggled for words. Claire wasn't going to help her with this one. She'd embarrassed herself enough, it was Alex's turn to suffer a little. Claire looking like an idiot? Not cool. Alex floundering for words? Always hysterical.

"Yeah?" Claire prodded, trying to smother her grin.

Alex bit her bottom lip. Was that because of the whole "raised-by-vampires" thing? "You want to go with me?"

"Yeah," Claire said, not looking away. It felt important to let Alex know she meant it.

"Like… as a pity thing?"

"Kinda. Like if your boyfriend hadn't turned out to be a vamp and a massive prick, I wouldn't have offered. But I don't mind hanging out with you too much. You're okay when you're not making me look bad." Claire fiddled with one of the rings on her fingers. "That's if you don't mind the town menace coming to the prom with you. Just letting you know, I don't think we'll be voted co-Prom Queens or anything."

Alex drew her fingernails against the ball of her thumb, over and over again. Had she done that before? Claire couldn't remember and felt guilty. Did she make Alex nervous or was she just a crappy person in general? "You've been nicer to me lately. It's weird."

"Yeah, well." Claire couldn't think of a good retort to that. She shrugged instead and crossed her arms, feeling like a dumb teenager. She guessed that's what she was. Whatever. "Whatever," she echoed. "You wanna go or what? If you don't want to go anymore, we could… catch a movie. Get ice cream. Something."

"Can we do all that?"

"No! Jody made me promise I'd bring you home before 2!" Claire said, remembered they could do stuff before the prom, tried to remember how long movies took, and backpedaled. " _Maybe_. But I pick the ice cream we get."

Alex suddenly looked very serious. "Wait. Did Jody ask you to take me?"

Claire rolled her eyes again, this time so Alex could see. "No, she didn't. I was thinking about doing it for you because you were so excited and bought a dress and everything and then all that bad crap happened and you tried to pretend you were over it but I… I don't know. You already bought the dress, it seemed like a waste of money. And after everything you've been through, I figured you deserved to look forward to something. Even if it's kind of stupid."

Alex looked down again, then seemed to force herself to look at Claire and give her a smile. "Thanks," she said quietly.

"No problem," Claire said, getting up to leave. She'd done enough good deeds for one day. She had _earned_ some time spent looking up freak deaths that'd happen recently. She'd call Dean - maybe Cass - if she found anything. Maybe she would call even if she didn't. They might have some old-man wisdom on how to do proms right.

… Huh. On second thought, they might be a little out of touch on that. Okay, ask them, then ask Jody to double-check. It wouldn't hurt to make _sure_ she got it right.


End file.
